EXCLUSIVE: Brian McKnight Sues Radio Station For Claiming He’s An Abusive, Awful Dad

February 24, 2026

Brian McKnight sued Urban One for defamation, alleging radio hosts amplified his ex-wife’s abuse claims and damaged his reputation in court filing.

Since 1998, AllHipHop.com has pioneered delivering Hip-Hop news. Get our daily email for exclusive, breaking news, and weekly digests, all curated for the true Hip-Hop enthusiast. Stay connected and informed with the heartbeat of Hip-Hop culture. Subscribe now!

Brian McKnight is taking his family drama off Instagram and into a North Carolina courtroom to deny that he is an abusive, deadbeat father.

The R&B vet is going after Foxy 107.1, its owner Urban One, and longtime on‑air host Karen Clark. He accuses them of defamation, negligent and reckless publication, and vicarious liability, and is seeking more than $25,000 in compensatory damages on each claim, plus punitive damages.

According to the filing, the drama centers on a January 23, 2025, Foxy 107.1 interview with McKnight’s ex‑wife, singer Julie McKnight, that aired from the station’s Raleigh studio and was also posted on its YouTube channel.

McKnight says Julie used that sit‑down to recycle a long‑running narrative that he was “emotionally abusive, mentally abusive, and a neglectful father,” and that Clark helped push it to listeners instead of acting like a neutral host.

Brian McKnight points to specific moments in the interview where Julie claims she and their kids were “asked to leave our house at two and three years old,” and says she’s been “putting out fires” with their adult children over what she calls his “lies” about their family.

She also describes a “very, very negative” text from McKnight while their son Niko was battling cancer and suggests the kids pulled away from him because his behavior was “so damaging.”

The suit says Clark didn’t just sit back and let Julie talk. It alleges she nodded along, co‑signed the accusations with her own commentary, and used her questions to validate the story.

McKnight says those moments turned the segment into a tag‑team hit, not a fair interview. He argues the conversation framed him as dishonest, abusive and unfit as a parent, and that Foxy 107.1 never checked the claims, never offered him a chance to respond, and never added any disclaimer.

McKnight also pulls Urban One’s nationally syndicated Rickey Smiley Morning Show into the lawsuit, saying a December 15, 2025, podcast episode added fuel to the fire.

In that episode, Smiley’s team allegedly pulled in a clip from an outside interview with McKnight’s eldest son, Brian McKnight Jr., who claimed his dad refused to tell Niko he loved him as he was dying from cancer.

The suit says that the edited clip ran without context or McKnight’s side and was framed to suggest he coldly withheld love from his son during Niko’s final days.

On‑air reactions like “That does not surprise me” and “That’s unfortunate” allegedly helped sell the story to Smiley’s 865,000‑plus YouTube subscribers, with the episode pulling about 2,400 views as of the filing.

McKnight says that’s not neutral syndication, it’s Urban One using its platforms to “validate and reinforce” a damaging narrative about him.

McKnight also claims Urban One and Smiley knew better. The complaint says McKnight had been in contact with Smiley “for several years,” asking him to stop spreading “false and misleading” commentary about his relationship with his older kids.

Even with that warning, the filing says, the company continued to “publish, republish, and amplify” similar claims across its shows, which McKnight calls a “pattern of reckless disregard for the truth” rather than an innocent mistake.

That lawsuit lands on top of a family feud that’s already been playing out in public for years.

McKnight has long been estranged from his oldest children, and both they and his exes have aired him out on social media and in interviews.

In 2023, he and his current wife, Leilani, welcomed a son named Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr., and he legally changed his name to match the new baby’s, despite already having a son named Brian McKnight Jr., sparking heavy backlash and accusations that he was erasing his older kids.

His eldest son and daughter have repeatedly accused him online of abandoning them and their children, with Brian Jr. calling his father’s treatment of the family “an obscene level of self hate.”

In 2024, McKnight referred to his older biological children as “products of sin” in an Instagram post, drawing more outrage and fresh responses from his kids and from Julie, who said those comments capped off years of emotional and mental abuse.

After Niko died of cancer, Brian Jr. went public with a heartbreaking story about allegedly begging his father to tell Niko “I love you” before he passed, and says McKnight refused, an interview that helped set up the clip later used on Smiley’s show.

McKnight, for his part, has pushed back in statements and recent interviews, saying he was blocked from helping Niko and insisting the online story about his parenting is twisted and incomplete.

Brian McKnight has filed a defamation lawsuit against Urban One, accusing the company of amplifying his ex‑wife’s abuse claims.

View Original Source